I had thoroughly prepared 2 bikes for this ride.
My 2006 KTM 450EXC and my ever faithful 2008 Yamaha WR250R.
I hauled them both to Arizona to meet up with my buddy Scott Stevenson (dingweeds) at his place in Tuson, AZ.

I had laid out a ride of approximately 3,000 miles offroad in Baja and knew my WR would take me there and back.
I chickened out on the KTM----I wasn't sure it would take me there-----or back.
Send hate mail---to "I don't care.com"
It would be fun riding no doubt--but I needed something more and chose the WR250R---and had no problems with it.
At "casa dingweeds" we made last minute preperations in his shop and I was well taken care of at Dingweeds place.

What your not seeing in this picture------is Dr. Rock's and Francines (Mobius Ride) 2 DRZ400S's sitting in the corner waiting for the next Mobius ride. The well worn and hard ridden bikes have received major maintenance--which has been something Dr. Rock has not had the time to do. Dingweeds has been gracious enough to store their bikes and see that the work has been done to their bikes.

On the left is Wayne Wah who was nice enough to let me park my tow vehicle at his house which was about 15 miles from the
Baja border for as longs as I wanted--------thanks Wayne !!!!!
So me and Dingweeds unloaded here and rode to the Mexican Baja border in Calexico, California.

We had gotten our Mexican insurance at BajaBound insurance online for about $75 and carried a copy of it with us.
We both cashed $800 of USA money for Peso's---the rate at the time was about 1.24 I think.
Roughly 100 Peso's cost $8 USA . This can be done at many Casa De Cambio's in Calexico.

It was about a 1/2 mile line of cars waiting to get in.
Once at the border you just ride across------no problemo.
But we needed Visas's and I didn't see the little building to get them and we got a bit lost---and now the adventure started.
After wandering around a wee bit we went by a Policia station and I talked this Policeman into giving us an escort to the Visa office.
This was hilarious-------so imagine this.
He turned on his lights and sped off with us 3ft. off his bumper------and we played Mexican bumper cars thru the traffic.
Except---------it was like the parting of the red sea as the officer ran stop light after stop light---stop sign after stop sign and waved his arm out
the window of his police car for us to come on thru. It was a hoot as people and cars scattered out of our way and we kept right on his bumper
thru the busy streets with full attention on the throttle and brakes------at the same time.
When we got there he sped off and I hollered a big "Gracius". Me and Scott were both laughing in our helmets.
This was the start of many acts of kindness that we would experience on this whole trip.

We blew out of Mexicala and headed West on the pavement for about 17 miles and turned South on to the dry lake bed (Laguna Salida) with dark fast approaching.

It's about 25 miles South on a sandy dirt road to the turn off to Canon De Guadelupe---then about 7 miles back into the Canyon to the Hot Springs
and nice camping area. It got plum dark riding back in there and we took no pictures. We would have gotten here in plenty of daylight if I had found the
place to get our visa's more promptly. From the border crossing it is only about 65 miles to Canon De Guadelupe.

We were met by Ernesto and he took about 450 of our peso's for a really nice secluded campsite with a roof over our heads, a grill, a picnic table
and of course------------a hot tub.

It was pitch black out----these shots were taken with a flash and me and Scott soaked in the hot tubs till they about put us to sleep.
The water temperature was absolutely perfect and the ambient temperature was too at a nice 55°.

The stars were out like you wouldn't believe-------I don't get to see the clear sky and stars back in my Southern Illinois hometown
like we did here in Baja.

Clothes optional

This picture was taken the next morning---but we set our tents up under this roof for the night without our rainflies-----it never rains in Baja !!!!!!
Scotts backpack is on the roof for a reason----which I'll get to.

So now the best story of the trip.
Me and Scott were sound asleep when I was wakened by a lot of noise---something really big was in our camp and
in the trash barrell. I knew there were no bears down there---but me and Scott are always camping in bear country--and
that was on my mind. I dismissed the bear thoughts and wondered what it was and hollered to wake up Scott.
There was no waking him up---and I got out of my tent and was shaking his tent and hollering at him to wake him up
and I heard the large animal run off----------it had very heavy sounding feet and we decided it was a horse ??????
But Scott never heard it at all. Actually his snoring was louder than the noise the animal was making.
We lauged it off and fell back to sleep after not finding anything out of place---what was it ?????

I have been here before with Gaspipe, Jonz, and another fellow.
We came thru in the middle of the day and stopped for a short while------but I was set on staying here this time--soaking in the hot springs and
hiking around and seeing all the beautiful plants in the Canyon------we have no jobs---we were in no hurry to leave and took it all in.
We were both up at sunrise taking pictures.
We were on the South side of the canyon and there were campspots and hot tubs on both sides of the canyon.

I think these plants are called "Fan Palms"
According to the E32 Mexico maps loaded in our gps's the elevation at camp was about 1.100'.
The peak you see here was about 2,800'.
The E32 maps were awesome and were topographical---a very good purchase before we left.
My last trips to Baja and mainland Mexico were done with much inferior gps maps.

We went for a long walk before suiting up as the sun rose swiftly and warmed things up nicely.

This place could be on anybodys bucket list----I wish my wife and son would join me down here.

Alone I said ?????????
Well after a very long walk---and back to our camp I noticed we had an intruder---------a squatter ???? And Ass ??????
He was looking at me like "Oooopps---we've been caught"-------notice I said "we".

Scott had thought it might have been donkeys in our camp last night----and I laughed cause I had told him there were no donkeys in the Canon'.

There were 2 of them and they had gotten into are our food and snacks and even my toothpaste !!!!!!!!
Probably took a dip in our hot tub.
This guy is finishing off Scotts peanuts.

So now starts the "BigDog Donkey Rodeo"
as I pulled and tugged on the donkeys while Scott pushes and smacks them on the rear to get them out.
It wasn't easy------and we could do nothing but laugh even tho they ate all our food.

I intentionally gave some helpful hints in the previous posts of exactly what we did to make the border crossing.
In hope it might help out some future travelers of Mexico-------of course our passports were required for the visa and a $25 fee. And the passport made leaving Mexico a 10 second deal. No other I.D. required.
Some say you don't need a visa---maybe not in Baja Norte (North)---but we were going all the way to the tip of Baja.

I will post a gps file ---and it will give handy waypoints of the visa place, gas in a barrel, motels, places we crashed, places to eat, Pemex's and lot's of other stuff.

The gps file has the tracks for each day-----so you can follow along.
Our trip was cut way short because of an injury----------that story is coming---be patient.